The Roman colusseum in Pula, Croatia

Was going through the photos of the Croatia trip and realised that we left out Pula. Pula is in Istria, north western Croatia, bordering on Slovenia. It’s a cute harbor city that has the sixth largest Roman Colosseum in the world – and a sight to behold at that. Especially the bay views through the Colosseum wall arches. This Colosseum was a far better experience that the world famous Roman one. It’s in much better shape and is still used today as a concert venue.

Aside from the Colosseum, there’s a great archeology museum and a cosmopolitan city. Pula feels like there are a few more cultures represented and feels somewhat more assimilated than other cities. If you’re planning a trip, you could probably do Pula in a day or two. It’s a blindingly good drive from Opatija too! Heaps of twisty mountain roads for the more adventurous driver.

For nerdy types, there’s plenty of archaeology, roman ruins, museums, churches, art, culture. Most towns, especially Hvar, Rovinj and Korcula are very big on art too.

What’s the weather like?
Bloody hot actually. You will get burnt in the sun. Those of you from Australia will know that other countries can get hot, but you don’t get sunburnt. You will in Croatia, so take care.

How much money do you need?
Including B&B accommodation perhaps 600 to 800 Kuna (say $150-200 AUD) per day if you’re travelling as a couple. More if you’re drinking! Less if you’re staying in backpackers.

A decent restaurant lunch with beer for two would cost well under 200 Kuna (approx $45). Dinner a little more, maybe 250 Kuna. If you went to a supermarket and bought some sandwich meat, bread rolls and fruit, you may spend about 60 Kuna ($15 AUD).

A slice of pizza (you can get that anywhere) and a drink would be about 20 Kuna. You will tire of pizza very quickly. In Zagreb, you can get a quarter of a pizza for 9 Kuna from the bakeries! Very tasty!

Spirits and mixed drinks are a bit more expensive. Perhaps 30 Kuna a drink.

Is it worth renting a car?
Definitely. But it’s left hand drive. So if you haven’t driven LHD cars before and you don’t have a travelling companion don’t! You definitely need a navigator and someone to help keep your wits about you, otherwise it will make your holiday very, very stressful.

With Economy Car Rentals, we were about to get a reasonably decent size hatchback for around $60 AUD a day fully insured. They were by far the cheapest and we have no complaints.

Petrol costs around $2 AUD a litre. All the highways have lofty tolls as well. Which are well and truly justified by the smooth 130 KPH speed limits.

What’s it like driving there?
Croatians are excellent, courteous drivers – compared to the Italians! Be mindful that the highways are quite new, and if you intend to go inland, to Bosnia, or especially Montenegro, it will cost you more money. Mainly because the roads are skinny as hell and very poorly surfaced indeed. Stick to the main roads and highways within Croatia and you should be right.

What about scooters and motorbikes?
Highly recommended and a great way to get around the beach towns. Highlight of our trip was spending a day on a scooter in Korcula and finding beaches all to ourselves!

50CC scooters are everywhere in Split, Hvar, Korcula and Rovinj and all beachy places. It costs about 150 Kuna a day ($40 AUD?). If you want a four stroke 125CC scooter or bigger, you will need a motorcycle licence. There’s not much on offer in between.

Escpecially in Hvar, we noticed plenty of bikers ride in from as far away as Sarajevo. Roads are very bike friendly!

Any places to avoid?
Rijeka is a bit of an industrial town you may have to drive through. If you’re only interested in beaches, partying and cruisy resorts, stay between Split and Dubrovnik. Because it’s a lot colder up north.

Sadly Zagreb was a bit of a disappointment. I wouldn’t say don’t go there, but I wouldn’t recommend it either. It’s a bit beige.

More to come as I think of it. If you have any questions about the place, let me know and i’ll see if I can cover it here!

There’s many great things to say about Zagreb. The shopping is pretty good, evident in the women who are really fashionable and evidently good looking. It’s like they’re catching up on all those years in Soviet (well communist) darkness. There seems to be a bit of nightlife (too knackered at the end of a day of walking to find out). My traveling companion has had no trouble finding good fashion. For me, I’ve found some awesome music stores here – even some heavy metal stores.

Guide books tell you that there are some expensive restaurants here even by London standards. Sadly we’ve had our fill. Nothing to report on there. The food we have tried is good, heaps of truffles around too, but nothing to write home about except for some fantastic pizza slices in the main Square. Rovinj, Istria and all the really small islands like Mijet is where the great food is really at.

On the bizarre side, every day at noon, they fire a canon out of a tower window so people can set their watches to it! It’s just kinda done out of wacky tradition now, but hey, so is the English royal family!

Again the public transport makes rally drivers look soft. They have these 3 carriage blue trams that roar along at thrice the speed of those in Melbourne. I was almost ran over by one today just walking down the street. Just like that kid Screech, I was saved by the bell.

For the artisans, there’s plenty of museums and galleries. Some bona fide masterpieces too with paintings from Renoir and Monet. But for the love of god, if I see one more fifteenth century gold painting of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, bah! Unlike Split (Diocletian who retired and built his palace there was a Pagan), its ALL Christian stuff. Hundreds of paintings and paraphernalia. I saw one Pagan cup in the Museum Omimara today. And by default, it was a highlight.

A highlight of Zagreb is 20th century sculptor Mestrovic’s (Mesh-tro-vish) home. We saw his humble mansion in Split too, but his home in Zagreb just defies all superlatives. Until I found out about this bloke, I thought sculptors were frankly a bit soft. Mestrovic has changed that forever. He designed this house, made most of the furniture in it, and even designed the al-fresco mural one of the ceilings (he had to call in a mate to actually paint it though). He was a bona fide architect, artist, painter, sculptor and for all intents must have been a bloody good engineer. All this from a bloke that in Vienna couldn’t get his degree because he never even attended elementary school.

Zagreb is a bit of a surprise. Certainly not the cleanest or best culinary experience of the trip, but worth visiting for a few days. I just hope you like museums. If not you’re probably better off sticking to the beaches.

Istria and Rovinj is absolutely gorgeous, except for the fact that were in an internet cafe listening to Bobby Brown. Music sadly doesn’t have the same life cycle that it does at home. In other words, crap music lives forever in Croatia. Only down side is that the ocean water is nowhere near as clear as it is down south in Hvar and Korčula. Nor do the locals speak as much English. So much so that if you come to Rovinj, its like getting a free stop over in Germany because there are so many German tourists here.

Rovinj would have to be a highlight of the trip so far. Because it has an old city (no city walls though), so much art and charm in abundance. Like down south, there are plenty of ferries to catch to little islands and stuff. But we’ve well and truly had our fill of that. And the weather has been a little more than average sadly for boating expeditions. Oh and truffles are incredibly cheap in restaurants up here. We had spaghetti and truffles for about $17 AUD. Awesome!

Speaking of good food, we’ve just come out of Monte’s, a restaurant not in any of the travel guides. We’ve had an incredibly sumptuous five course meal on par with View Du Monde in Melbourne with wine for approx $200 AUD. In many respects probably better than local fare through the creativity in dishes and quality of produce. If you end up this far north in Croatia, make sure you save your pennies for Monte’s. The food is much better up north and its far more of a Italian/Euro vibe here than in Dubrovnik and Hvar down south.

At this stage its worth noting that northern Croatia would be pretty inaccessible without a car. Its not cheap (petrol is roughly $2 a litre here) but it’s very so worth it. Especially the quaint little village of Vodnjan was worth the rental of the car alone. Its a little inland village that for all intents hasn’t changed in a 100 years. Not a hit of a fast food joint or chain coffee store anywhere. The antithesis of a tourist town! At the very least, it’s a taste of how Croats truly live in ancient little villages.

The real highlight of Vodnjan is the bizarre experience of seeing 6 sainted mummies in a Church in Vodnjan. One of these mummies was about 600 years old but still has elastic skin. Very, very very, freaky to see. They wouldn’t let you take photos. But we had these postcards that looked like they were from the cover of a Bloodduster CD. Easily the most freaky and macarbe experience of the trip.

Equally macabre was seeing the land mine warning signs on the side of the road to Politviće National Park. A grim reminder that war in that national park only really finished circa 1996. Sadly it was raining cats and dogs and we didn’t get to see the park. But it sure was an experience getting there. Should hopefully get back there this week.

Next update will probably be in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Until then, rock out with yer cock out! I know I will!

One thing you simply have to do in your life, let alone Korcula, is rent a scooter and ride around the island. It’s a true La Dolce Vita experience! Korcula can very easily afford you a beach to yourself for the entire afternoon! I hadn’t ridden a motorbike before but the roads are both picturesque and very easy going. The water of the Adriatic, as always, clearer than a nuns conscience on Sunday.

The old town itself is quite small and you could probably do it in a few hours, let alone days. Aside from a few art galleries, especially the Atelier Gallery in the old town, meh its a bit average.

One thing to definitely AVOID is Marco Polo’s house. Firstly it probably has about as much to do with the great explorer as my undies. We found a dilapidated shack down the road with a plaque that looked like it was his real home. Secondly, you pay 15 Kuna to walk up a rikety staircase designed for midgets, that is one corpulent American tourist away from total collapse. Once you get up there, it’s an OK view, but not worth the life and limb getting there. If ever there was a need for a door bitch, it’s right here. You know, keeping the numbers to at least 50 at a time on a stair case clearly designed for half a 15th century midget at a time. But hey! These experiences are what travel is all about…

Food is unfortunately nothing worth blogging about. Despite the initially luke warm locals, it’s a great place to spend a few days.

Next stop Hvar.